


Wear You Around My Neck

by evil_brainmate



Series: Hartwin Week [4]
Category: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
Genre: Ableism, Blood, F/M, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Psychological Trauma, Scarification, Self-Harm, Stalking, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 12:58:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4607634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evil_brainmate/pseuds/evil_brainmate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hartwin Day 4: Undercover</p><p>One of Eggsy's undercover missions comes back to haunt him.</p><p>Established Harry/Eggsy, unrequited OFC/Eggsy</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wear You Around My Neck

**Author's Note:**

> WARNING! This is kind of dark and there's a lot of ableist slurs thrown around about a character with mental health issues. I'm so sorry I gave you guys like three days of fluff and then this.
> 
> Unbeta'd, so apologies for any mistakes.

The first thing Eggsy notices when he wakes up is that he's only wearing his pants. His vision swims and the noisy flickering of a halogen light's spastic death throes above him cause the pounding in his temples to increase. He twitches his limbs finding them zip tied multiple times to a wobbly metal chair which he isn't confident he can bust out of. His foggy brain scrambles for information as he tries to remember where he is, but it's slow to churn through the memories resurfacing. He's not been on a mission in weeks, and he's been avoiding running around in his suit or glasses. He remembers the fight in his home, the needle in his neck, drugs slowing him down. He squints in the gloom, but can't make out any discernible exits or details on his surroundings, though he supposes his captor might have thought to black out the windows. Eggsy's head jerks when a hand wraps around his jaw; sharp manicured nails slide through the blood dribbling down his chin.

“Melanie!” Eggsy spits, his mind finally clicking the pieces together. There's no one else it could be.

“Yes, dear?” A sickeningly sweet voice purrs in Eggsy's ear as his captor's other hand snakes down his chest.

“Let me outta here,” Eggsy growls and tugs at his restraints.

“Now I thought you liked being tied up, Ian.”

“Look, whoever you think I am, I ain't!”

“Don't you think we're past these games, darling?” Melanie sighs and releases her hold of Eggsy and walks around the chair he's restrained to, only to disappear into a dark corner. Eggsy stretches as far as he can in his seat to see what she's doing, but it's no use. He hears the clinking of metal and sees a momentary flicker of dim light like a flame. “I know you remember me, and there's absolutely no way I would mistake you for someone else. I know every inch of you, remember?”

Eggsy redoubles his struggle against the ties when Melanie approaches him, but only manages to tip his chair and jam his shoulder in the process. The metal frame isn't weak enough for him to bend or break it without some serious momentum.

“It's alright, love,” Melanie coos, head tilting in amusement to meet Eggsy's eyes where he lay on the floor. “I suppose I don't actually need you sitting up for this.”

She then proceeds to tip the chair again so that Eggsy is on his back. He lets out a pained grunt as the weight of his own body crushes his arms and hands between the chair and the concrete floor. Melanie then straddles Eggsy's stomach and he can't help but bite out a snarky comment.

“You're a lot heavier than ya look,” he huffs.

The woman glares at him for a moment, but seems undeterred.

“You're so lucky I love you, Ian,” Melanie drawls as she strokes Eggsy's cheek fondly. “Most women would be offended, but not me. I know you're saying things you don't mean because you're a little out of sorts, right?”

“You fuckin' kidnapped me!”

“NO! You wanted to come with me! I saved you from that creepy old lech.”

“What? Ya fuckin' kidnapped me cos ya don't like my boyfriend?” Eggsy spits.

“I didn't kidnap you. How many times will I have to say that?” Melanie growls. “And he's not your boyfriend. He can't be because you love me, right dear? We'll fix it though. I'll make sure everyone knows you're mine, just like I'm yours.”

Eggsy chokes on his own response when Melanie pulls the low collar of her shirt to the side to reveal a series of scarred lines in her skin etching out 'Ian Bateman'.

“See? It took some practice,” Melanie says and lifts the edge of her skirt to show him more scars that look like scratched out words. “I've got the hang of it now though.”

“You're fuckin' insane,” Eggsy hisses as his captor draws out a scalpel, and the flame from earlier makes sense now. She's done a DIY sterilization on the blade with alcohol and a lighter. “You keep that shit away from me or I swear to God I will—”

“You will what?” Melanie laughs. “I don't understand why you're so reluctant about this, Ian. You were so much more pleasant in Morocco.”

“I don't know what the fuck you're on about you psycho bitch!” Eggsy howls at the first cut into his bare chest, just above his heart. Eggsy's thrashing does little but make the blade dig deeper. As he desperately tries to block out the pain, all he can think is that Harry was right.

* * *

_Six Months Ago_

“I know young people sometimes have trouble discerning fantasy from reality, but you _do_ realize that honeypots are a last resort?” Harry asks. “There's a slew of reasons we seldom ask our agents to perform them.”

“I've been here for months, Harry,” Eggsy sighs as he paces his temporary apartment in Venice. “I'm gettin' absolutely fuckin' nowhere with this 'Ian Bateman: Office Lackey Extraordinaire' shite. The place is sealed up tighter than the god damn Queen herself, and I want to come home.” Eggsy bites his cheek because he realizes he's whinging and Kingsmen don't call up their boss to cry about how they hate their job.

Even if that's totally what Eggsy is doing.

“You know, most people would appreciate if their company gave them an all expense paid trip to exotic locations. That's not counting the bespoke suits and fancy equipment.”

“I know, Harry,” Eggsy groans. “I just feel like this girl is a more expedient path. Daughter of the CFO has to have access to his office, right?”

“Alright, Galahad,” Harry sighs, but Eggsy takes it as a win if Harry is using his code name. He'd never offer 'Eggsy' official sanction to do anything. “I'm authorizing change of tactics if, and only if, you coordinate with Merlin on the matter at hand and he deems it necessary, or that the advanced timeline is worth the risk. He will also have to be actively observing any and all contact between you and your mark, understood?”

“Merlin gets to play voyeur? He gets all the fun jobs.”

“Galahad, I am serious about this.”

“Of course Arthur.”

“Good. Please be careful, Eggsy. I'm not joking when I say these operations are just as deadly as most armed altercations.”

“I will be, Harry. I'm going to give Merlin a call now. Love you.”

“I love you too, Eggsy.”

* * *

_Five Months Ago_

Eggsy's original target is one Mr. Augustine: the CFO of a large Mediterranean shipping company whom Kingsman has discovered is supporting drug and weapons trade along the coasts of Africa and Europe. Merlin suspects the man of cooking the books and hiding these lucrative deals in plain sight among their usual shipments, but Eggsy's cover as an office manager at the company's headquarters only grants him access to select areas and of course, the higher ups have their own personal aides. Normally, Eggsy would just break in with no one the wiser, but the CFO's office has a not-so-surprising amount of security.

So now he's moved on to a sub-target: Melanie Augustine. Not that it's any hardship given that Melanie is his original target's daughter and absolutely gorgeous. She is all long legs and olive skin hinting at her half-Italian heritage with stunnin green eyes, and dark,wavy hair. Eggsy would have been gone for her if he was an actual desk jockey and not a spy with the world's most handsome and dangerous boyfriend waiting for him back home.

Still, his plan has its perks. Eggsy has already become a favorite of the female staff by behaving like an adorable, overactive puppy trying his best to please everyone. Most of the women eat up his non-threatening and charming persona, while the men tend to ignore him as some helpless thing that isn't chasing after their jobs. Most of them are too busy blatantly harassing their female coworkers to actually deduce that the ladies in question are far more interested in Eggsy than some persistent prick.

Buoyed by his reputation as the office's sweetheart, Eggsy lays in wait until the opportune moment. It's a simple thing, really. Melanie has returned to the office with her mid-morning coffee, and Eggsy grabs a stack of easily reprinted forms and orchestrates a chance encounter. He walks around his desk and into the main office area, weaving between cubicles and dropping off papers as he goes. Melanie is speaking in hushed words into her phone and Eggsy takes advantage of her distraction so that she bumps into him as he rounds the corner.

Papers scatter and the latte scalds Eggsy a bit through his shirt while Melanie's balance wavers in her stilettos as she tumbles back over Eggsy's toes. Eggsy manages to snake an arm around her back and knock her coffee away from her when he grabs her hand, saving her from both a fall and a ruined blouse. The added style of managing to catch her in an approximation of a dip certainly doesn't hurt either.

“I am so, so sorry!” Eggsy apologizes and carefully helps the woman regain her balance. “I didn't—Are you alright?”

“Yes, I'm fine,” Melanie says with a nod, glancing at Eggsy's hand which is still wrapped around hers.

Eggsy pretends to have only noticed their proximity and yanks his hands back as though he were burned. “Sorry,” Eggsy repeats. “I really should watch where I'm going. Let me clean up this mess.”

Melanie takes a moment to end her phone call while Eggsy quickly kneels down to pick up the documents scattered about, and only seems to realize his mistake when he glances up and sees Melanie's long gorgeous legs and her skirt's hemline roughly at eye level. He feigns embarrassment and turns his gaze pointedly away.

“Here, let me help,” Melanie says as she grabs up the remaining papers closest to her. “I wasn't paying attention either. Sorry about your shirt.”

“What? It's fine! Well I mean, the shirt probably isn't but you shouldn't—um,” Eggsy sputters and glances over at Melanie while he peels off his coffee soaked button up to reveal a coffee-free, tight fitted undershirt. “You're alright, yeah? Nothing's ruined by coffee?”

“I think you took the worst of it, thanks,” Melanie replies with a laugh.

“I'll buy you another. Just let me call someone to clean this up and we can go,” Eggsy says, perhaps a bit more enthusiastically than he should, but he's certain Melanie will fall for the over-eager embarrassed type. “Or—uh later if you want.”

“Now sounds lovely. You'll need to buy another shirt anyway,” Melanie adds, pointing at the soaked fabric in Eggsy's hand.

And Eggsy knows that he's got her hooked.

* * *

_Three Months Ago_

It doesn't take long for him to get involved with Melanie. Eggsy's own charm and Melanie's own active sex drive pave an easy way for him to get in close enough that he's often staying at her place at least twice a week for a bit over the past month. He collaborates with Merlin to clone the key card she leaves out in plain sight and coordinate a few modifications in the security feeds so that he can get into the CFO's office.

“So, we good here?” Eggsy asks as he sets up Merlin's remote access to the computer.

“Possibly,” Merlin replies. “I'll need you to stay in place for a while longer, to make sure I can get what we need. Then, we'll have to handle your extraction. Can't make it obvious having the new guy leave just after someone accesses the CFO's computer.”

“I thought you said this was untraceable,” Eggsy hisses.

“It _should_ be untraceable.”

“If I die, don't let Harry get JB stuffed when the mutt finally kicks.”

* * *

_Two Months Ago_

Good to his word, Merlin's computer wizardry goes completely unnoticed, but Eggsy hits a minor snag trying to disengage from his mission.

“So I'm supposed to be here for another month at least so that I can convincingly slip out, but Melanie is not takin' the subtle break up hints,” Eggsy grumbles during one of his progress reports to Harry and Merlin.

“So don't be subtle,” Harry replies as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“She's tryin' to get me to fly to Morocco with her for an extended weekend. I think she's hopin' it'll rekindle our romance or some shite.”

“You're not authorized to go, Eggsy,” Harry replies.

“Free vacation on a criminal's dime,” Merlin sighs. “Why don't I ever get nice things?”

“Merlin,” Harry warns.

“I've got a plan to let her down gently, Arthur,” Eggsy says. “She's already noticed some distance, and Merlin is arrangin' a 'family emergency' as the reason I'll be leavin'. I'll just spin a story about how bad shit's goin' down back home with my family and I've been worried. When I put in my notice it'll be one of those things that just wasn't meant to be.”

* * *

“See, love? This isn't so bad now is it?” Melanie coos. Tears are stubbornly gathering in the corner's of Eggsy's eyes but her refuses to let them fall. He doesn't know how far she is through her name by now, the pain all blending together. Melanie takes her sweet time carving the letters deep and actually excising some of the flesh because thin lines wouldn't scar enough for her liking.

Eggsy gives up trying to talk to her. At this point the only sounds that can escape him anyway are inarticulate pained noises and he won't give her that satisfaction.

* * *

_Three weeks ago_

While Eggsy is glad to be back home, he's pretty sure he's going to start going crazy soon. Merlin is over the moon with all of the information from Augustine's computer, and his minions are working with various contacts to set up a sting operation. Melanie seems to have taken the news well that Eggsy needed to return to his family, and she's not blowing up his old burner number with angry voice mails. Harry is not happy about Eggsy's tactics, but he's understanding at least given their profession and his own experience. Eggsy chalks it all up to a job well done. Things went according to plan for once.

So it's an immense surprise when he hears a familiar voice shouting “Ian!” when he exits the tube station near his home. He doesn't respond, because he's a spy and letting someone assume a case of mistaken identity is often the safest bet. He instead picks up his pace and heads in the general direction of some nearby shops in hopes he'll ditch her.

“Ian!” She tries again, this time wrapping a hand around Eggsy's bicep and it takes every ounce of his will to ignore his training screaming in his veins to attack.

"Do I know ya?" Eggsy asks, affecting his thick south London drawl.

The perplexed expression on Melanie's face gives him hope he'll escape, but she shakes off her confusion and persists.

"It's me, Melanie. Like you would forget me, Ian."

"Don't know no Ian. Got the wrong man, love," Eggsy says and jerks his arm out of her hold and slips into the passing crowds away from her.

He hopes that will be the end of it, but he meets her again in the park two days later while taking JB for a stroll. He spots her on a nearby bench and snatches up JB in an attempt to get away before she notices him, but it's no use.

"So how's your father doing?" Melanie asks as she jogs up to Eggsy.

“What?”

“Well that's the reason you left right?” Melanie asks and falls into step with Eggsy as he tries to leave the park. “Your father was unwell. I was hoping he'd recovered.”

Eggsy growls and stops to turn on her. “Lady, I keep tellin' ya, ya got the wrong guy. Me da's been dead for years. Now leave me be or I'mma report ya for harassment.”

Without another word, Eggsy secures JB to his chest and sprints from the park in the direction of the Kingsman shop, knowing that Melanie won't be able to keep up. He's not wearing his glasses given that he has the day off, so he instead pulls out his phone and dials his handler.

"Merlin," Eggsy pants into his phone as he makes his way to Savile Row. "Pretty sure I've got a bunny boiler situation."

"What?" Merlin asks, his voice filled with incredulity.

"Melanie Augustine. I've bumped into her twice this week."

"Not by coincidence I assume?"

"No. She grabbed me outside the station the other day, and today she was in the park while I was taking JB for a walk."

"I'll put out a notice. Get your arse to HQ, we need to let Arthur and the available Knights know."

"She's a crafty one that girl," Merlin growls when Eggsy finally reaches Merlin's office at Kingsman headquarters.

"Yeah?" Eggsy asks, his heart sinking at the news.

"After you booked it, she disappeared from the scene and there's no record of her on any flight manifests or hotels since you've come back.”

"So you think she knows I'm not what I seem?"

"It's possible,” Merlin says as he rubs at his left temple. Eggsy recognizes the signs of an oncoming headache in his handler, and feels a flicker of guilt. “She could also be using an alias in order to make it harder to take legal action. A man claiming a woman not even in the country is stalking him is hard to take seriously."

"So what do I do?" Eggsy huffs.

"Go about your life, I suppose. We'll need to lure her out. She must have someone on payroll that she uses to hunt you down; most likely through facial recognition since we burned your alias."

"Alright. Got any cute gadgets to observe me? Don't exactly want to be runnin' around in my suit and glasses when I've been sayin' I ain't who she thinks."

* * *

_Eight Days Ago_

Eggsy can't say he's surprised when he spots Melanie lingering around the next several days, because if she didn't give up the first day, why would she now? She's not exactly being covert and often waves and smiles when Eggsy spots her, perhaps hoping Eggsy will come forth on his own. Merlin has assigned a junior member of his department as Eggsy's tail throughout the week which makes things a bit awkward knowing there's two people constantly watching him but he pushes through it.

It's Wednesday's standing lunch date with Harry that is the catalyst to his situation with Melanie. Harry is dressed down for the occasion in a more modest suit, no tie with two shirt buttons open and sans glasses but still connected to Merlin via a discreet earpiece. Eggsy and Harry both spot Melanie following them to their favorite cafe, their own Kingsman tail not far behind her no doubt streaming his own glasses' feed to Merlin.

“Let's sit outside today,” Harry says. “I'm not in the mood for crowds.”

Eggsy catches on to his plan immediately. “Just be ready if there's a sudden downpour.”

Wednesday's are usually the highlight of Eggsy's week, and the mission-like tension in the air is dampening his spirits. Harry seems to pick up on Eggsy's unease and is nothing if not attentive to him during their meal. He tilts his head on occasion, no doubt hearing feedback from Merlin about their stalker's actions. Eggsy can see her sitting outside a coffee house a few shops down from them, but he refuses to acknowledge her existence or make eye contact.

“You've hardly touched your food,” Harry observes. 

“Kinda hard to have an appetite when you're constantly being stared at,” Eggsy grumbles as he picks at the food on his plate.

Harry slips a his hand around Eggsy's and places a kiss against the young man's knuckles. “We'll work it out, Eggsy. As much as I'd like to, I can hardly murder the woman in broad daylight in front of a street full of witnesses.”

Eggsy huffs out a laugh in response but his amusement is cut short as he sees Melanie approaching.

“You've got incoming,” Merlin growls in Harry's earpiece.

“We've noticed,” Harry sighs and braces himself for his first encounter with the woman who has been making Eggsy's life hell.

“Ian! I thought that was you!” Melanie chirps when she arrives next to their table, leaning into Eggsy's space over the wrought iron fence separating them.

“You would know, seein' as you's been followin' me for a week. Name's still not Ian by the way,” he replies, but Melanie seems impervious to his barbs as usual and focuses her attention on Harry.

“And who is this?”

“Henry DeVere,” Harry replies. “Gary's partner.”

“Oh, a coworker?” Melanie asks as though she doesn't know exactly what Harry is to Eggsy.

“More like his future husband,” Harry clarifies with a shark-like grin.

“Oh.” That stops Melanie for a moment, but she seems to recover quickly enough. “Well, that's... That is going to make things very awkward. I'm afraid I'm not interested in sharing my family with you, Mr. DeVere.”

“The fuck are you on about?” Eggsy sputters.

Melanie turns her attention back to Eggsy; a manic grin plastered on her face. “Well, I've been trying to tell you the good news for weeks, Ian, but you've been avoiding me. We're having a baby! The doctor says I'm at about ten weeks.”

Eggsy can feel the color draining from his face at the news. “You takin' the piss? Ain't no one havin' my baby because I been with Henry for over a year and I'm pretty sure he ain't up the duff.”

“I honestly don't understand why you're being so difficult about this,” Melanie scoffs. “Honestly, you should be more concerned about the fact that I've been traipsing around after you to tell you the good news. I'm sure all the stress isn't good for the baby.”

“Ma'am, I'm sure Gary has told you this repeatedly, but you've got the wrong man,” Harry growls.

“I don't think this is any of your business,” Melanie hisses.

“Yeah, pretty sure you's talkin' loud enough to make it the whole fuckin' street's business. Just leave me alone, okay?”

“Ma'am,” a woman's voice calls. Eggsy looks up to see one of the waitresses approaching them, phone in hand. “I'm going to have to ask you to leave, or I will notify the authorities that you are harassing our customers.”

Melanie's eyes narrow at the waitress, but as the woman doesn't back down and actually starts dialing, Melanie turns on her heel and walks away with a muttered: “I'll speak to you later, Ian.”

“I think we would like our check now miss,” Harry says to the waitress. “Eggsy?”

“I wanna go home,” Eggsy chokes out, not bothering to look up while trying to hold back the bile racing up his throat.

Eggsy honestly isn't surprised by Harry's question when they reach his townhouse and are alone behind closed doors. It doesn't make it any easier to answer though.

“Is it true?” Harry asks, unable to keep his calm demeanor in the face of the situation.

“No. Can't be,” Eggsy says shaking his head.

“Ten weeks would certainly align with the time you were with the target, Eggsy.”

“No! No way, Harry. I was _so_ damn careful. I wouldn't leave loose ends.”

“Eggsy, _she_ _is_ a loose end!” Harry shouts.

“Alright, Harry!” Eggsy screams back, finally letting all the rage and helplessness at his situation come to a boil. “I don't know, okay? I fucked up! I shoulda listened to ya when ya said not to fuck her. What do ya want me to do about it? Want me to hunt her down and fuckin' pop two in the back of her head? Cos I'll fuckin' do it!”

“No, Eggsy. I don't expect you to be capable of murdering a former lover when you are emotionally compromised. After today's escalation, I don't have faith in the local authorities to deal with this swiftly either given our lack of proof. I'll talk to Merlin, and we'll see to this in house.”

“You're really going to fuckin' kill her, aren't you?” Eggsy chokes.

“If she's telling the truth, a paternity test will compromise your identity and is a liability to Kingsman. If she's lying, she's unhinged. Either way, she's dangerous and needs to be dealt with accordingly.”

Eggsy feels his stomach lurch at that, because fucking hell this is going to hang over him for the rest of his life. He's going to be responsible for the death of an obviously mentally unwell woman all because he was selfish. He couldn't handle his own fucking job and wanted to come home early. And now the man he loves is having to clean up the mess Eggsy dragged to their door. He knows Harry has every right to be mad at him, and the man's brutal calculation of the situation makes Eggsy want to hurl.

“I think I'm gonna spend the night at HQ,” Eggsy rasps. “I've had Merlin watchin' JB since the day in the park. I think I'll go see them.”

“Of course,” Harry replies as he pulls out his mobile. “I'll call someone to drive you.”

Eggsy nods but keeps his mouth shut until one of Kingsman's drivers comes to collect him, and even then he only says goodbye to Harry.

* * *

“Now isn't that just lovely?” Melanie coos as she wipes the dripping blood from Eggsy's chest and admires her own handy work.

“You got a sick definition of lovely,” Eggsy spits as he twitches his arms again, but they've long since gone numb.  
  
“Hmmm. I think I'm going to take a photo. Preserve this moment of our love,” Melanie sighs and pulls out a cell phone to snap a photo. She turns the phone to show Eggsy the gory fucking mess she's made of his chest and he wants to throw up. If he survives this, he's going to have to go through several rounds of antibiotics, therapy and every scar treatment known to man before he can take on another mission.

“I wish I had thought to set up a proper photo shoot and camera, but oh well,” Melanie continues, oblivious to Eggsy's reaction. “We'll have plenty of proper photos when the baby arrives.”

“You are seriously delusional lady. I hate to break it to ya, but we ain't havin' no baby. We ain't gettin' married neither and I DON'T FUCKIN' LOVE YOU, YOU SICK BITCH!” Eggsy screams the last part with all the vitriol he has left. A sob finally breaks from him. “I would rather die than have you skulkin' around the rest of my life; tryin' to force me to play along while you convince yourself that some sick fantasy in your head is real.”

Melanie's face goes slack in disappointment and Eggsy thinks that this time, maybe he's finally gotten through her psychosis.

* * *

_Three hours ago_

Eggsy stays at HQ for a few days without incident other than avoiding Harry out of a mix of shame, guilt and unease. Unfortunately, Melanie's been under the radar during Eggsy's absence so he is ordered back home by Merlin with a tail in hopes to flush her out of hiding.

The drive back to Eggsy's own residence is without incident, and there's no sign of Melanie anywhere along the route or up to his house. He glances around as he unlocks his front door and disables his alarm, noting the agent who followed his cab home has parked there car a few houses down to keep an eye out.

He shuts and locks the door behind him and makes his way through his flat, but there's no sign of anyone and he finally relaxes a little.

That's when he notices a bottle of champagne with a card tied to the neck on his small dining table. He approaches it cautiously, as though it were a bomb and not a very expensive bottle of booze. Eggsy doesn't bother touching the damn thing because he's not an idiot, but he notes the words 'I'm sorry' scrawled on the expensive card stock in gold. He flicks his phone to silent and snaps a picture of the bottle and sends it to Harry with a brief 'This from you?' attached and the hairs on the back of his neck prickle with the feeling of being watched.

He reacts explosively and catches the arm around his neck before his assailant even has time to get a good grip. A quick turn of the head and step to the side, and he's slipped out from under their arm and notes the target is a rather large man in a ski mask. Hired goon, Eggsy supposes as he uses his grip on the man's arm and shoulder to drag him down while Eggsy slams his knee up into the man's ribs. He continues to beat the man senseless as he backs him toward a wall away from the potentially deadly gift on the table.

Of course, Eggsy's opponent came with back up and Eggsy neatly dodges a swing coming his way, but the man he'd been pummeling into hamburger meat still has the energy to throw a lamp that connects solidly with Eggsy's jaw. Stars explode across his vision and his momentary shock is enough for thug number two to stick a needle in Eggsy's neck. Eggsy wobbles on his feet and manages to block a few of the man's swings while trying to reach an exit, but the fuzziness in his brain and numbness in his limbs catches up with him and he drops to the floor.

* * *

“Why would you say something like that?” Melanie asks, clenching the scalpel tightly in her fist. Tears fall freely down her face, but Eggsy can't even find it in him to feel remorse. “You would rather die than be with me?”

“Yeah,” Eggsy says without a moment's hesitation. A part of him is horrified to admit it's the truth. He can't sleep, can't relax, his relationship with Harry is strained at best, and he's been drowning in shame and guilt and _fear_ for so long that death is sounding like a more appealing option with each passing hour.

“Maybe, I'll do it then,” Melanie sobs and lifts the scalpel to Eggsy's neck.

Eggsy relaxes and closes his eyes, but the sound of muffled shouting and gunshots nearby startles him into alertness. A second later, Harry, and two other Kingsman agents burst into the room.

“No!” Melanie hisses, but she makes no move to get away from Eggsy. Instead she hunkers down closer to his body refusing to give the agents a clean shot. “This isn't how things were supposed to go!”

Eggsy can see murder in their eyes as Harry approaches him and Melanie.

“Miss Augustine, I would suggest you let Eggsy go,” Harry says, his voice crisp and formal.

“His name is Ian,” Melanie growls, and that's what causes Harry to snap.

Harry's hands strike like a viper, snatching the wrist of her hand holding the scalpel to Eggsy's neck while his palm strikes against the side of her elbow bending her arm at an awkward angle. Melanie's blood curdling screech rings in Eggsy's ears while the scalpel clatters to the concrete next to his skull. A second later, Harry grasps Melanie's shoulder with one hand and slides the other under her thigh to heave her sideways off of Eggsy sending her in a graceless sprawl on the floor.

“Harry!” Eggsy shouts, but the man in question ignores Eggsy while he pursues the woman trying to crawl away from them. He watches on in horror as Harry's shin and foot connect solidly against Melanie's ribs with an audible crack.

Ector and Gawain descend on Eggsy within seconds and go about righting his chair and working on cutting through the layers of zip ties holding him in place. Eggsy winces as their blades and fingers brush against the tattered flesh of his wrists and ankles where he's rubbed them raw and bloody in his attempts to escape. The pain all seems irrelevant though as he watches Harry kick Melanie's legs out from under her as she tries to stand up.

“Harry! I want to go home!” Eggsy screams, trying to get the man's attention because he can't watch Harry brutally beat the life out of an unarmed woman. It's too sickeningly like the last time he saw Harry lose control.

Eggsy's pleas seem to work because Harry looks over and his expression melts from rage into sorrow as he takes in Eggsy's battered body and wounded expression.

Harry then proceeds to turn to Melanie, draws his pistol, and empties the entire clip into her.

**Author's Note:**

> Can we tell I have a thing for Fatal Attraction? I've been editing this all day and then AO3 was down, so I'll possibly fix some mistakes later.
> 
> As always, find me on tumblr @[oggalahad](http://oggalahad.tumblr.com)


End file.
